GAINESVILLE, Fla. - In a 17-page letter sent to The Associated Press in 2000, serial killer Danny Rolling attributed his murder of five Gainesville college students to the abuse he suffered as a child and his treatment in prison.

Rolling, who was scheduled Friday to die Oct. 25, said he killed one person for every year he spent in prison. He served a total of eight years in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. He was accused of three murders in Louisiana but never prosecuted.

"A mangy dog gets more consideration than what I received in Parchman (a Mississippi prison). Imagine ... being forced to dwell in a prison cell that floods out two to three times a week with putrefied raw sewage, and having to exist in such filth for over eight months till it drives you crazy as a loon."

The letter ended with an apology of sorts.

"Any complaint I may have pales in comparison to the terrible wrong I inflicted upon good people. I stand in the shadow of their suffering. If it is to be mercy, then I shall be eternally grateful. If it to be the wrath of vengeance, then God grant me the strength to face what I must. For I owe a debt I cannot repay ... not even with my own life."